The wind is really whipping tonight as I sit here writing this. I can hear the sleet hammering against the windows and the wind chimes are singing as they dance. Kitty is curled on my lap, and the others are upstairs curled snug in their beds.

Once again, a good part of the day was spent by Carey and the kids sledding down the back hill. Technically, sledding is prohibited on University property, and Carey was hesitant at first. But so far no authorities has told anyone to stop or sent out notices. Last year, where we were it was quickly stopped so I'm not sure if it was just because of where we were (it was a heavily landscaped hill) or if that rule has changed. We also went through a ton of clothes and got rid of two huge 30 gallon bags that were stuffed as full as they would go. There's still more to go but it's such a huge relief to see so much go. That makes 9 bags that we've gotten rid of in the last month. It was a catharsis to be unburdened by so much and yet at the same time extremely embarrassing that there was so much to be gotten rid of in the first place.

Tonight we also went to the annual birthday party for a close family friend, Glen Lanier. Carey's parents have been good friends with the Laniers for many years and it's been a tradition for at least 13. Carey is also good friends with their son Mike although, at this time he was unable to attend since he's currently out to sea. He's in the Navy and is stationed on a nuclear sub somewhere. Carey says he hopes to see him in March sometime when he's home on leave. Part of the tradition is to have homemade pozole made by Mr. Lanier and it's always wonderful although the heat varies year by year. This year it was actually pretty mild. Carey and I were very proud of the kids. They were extremely well behaved. They used their manners, they played quietly with the bag of toys we had brought, no fights were started, etc. Even Kitty was well behaved and she was excited when she saw the dog, but she got nervous when a lot of people started showing up. I was disappointed when it was time to leave, but it was a good idea to do so before the kidlets reached critical mass and there was a major melt down.

The only bad thing to happen was the cutting of hair. It seems that we may have a budding stylist in the family, said person being Charles. Sigh... Carey had a received a beard trimmer for Christmas that also came with some scissors. Carey neglected to put the scissors safely away out of reach. Charles found them and proceeded to go to work on both Deedee and James! Grrr.... Deedee actually doesn't look too bad. Hers was thinned a lot (Goodbye rats nest on the back of her head) and it closely follows the shape of her head. Cute! But James... Well, James' was already a disaster anyway but now it looked even worse. I tried to fix it, but there are still a lot of problems with his. I think in the end he'll have to go to a professional although, if he'd just keep it combed it actually doesn't look to bad.